Ipswich sprinter D’Agostino hungry for 100-, 200-meter school records this season

Wednesday

Apr 19, 2017 at 10:11 PMApr 19, 2017 at 10:11 PM

Joshua Boyd jboyd@wickedlocal.com

He’s right back to square one, but every season Mike D’Agostino starts out, he knows his goals are ever more attainable.

When D’Agostino finished his 2016 outdoor track and field season as a sophomore, he finished with personal records (PR's) of 11.56 seconds for the 100-meter and 23.45 seconds for the 200-meter. That 200-meter time put him at eighth overall in the state’s Division 4 meet, and he wants to have even better PR's than last year when he's all done - and school records, as well.

"I was running my fastest by the end of the year last year, so I want to continuously increase as the season goes on. That’s my target really, so that I’ll be at my best at the end of May," said D’Agostino, now a junior.

The school records in both the 100 and 200 are currently held by Ipswich Athletic Hall of Famer Bernie Adell and date back to 1977. The 100 record is 10.83 seconds and the 200 record is 21.98.

"Those are very, very hard times, and they’ve been standing for 40 years," said D’Agostino. "It’ll definitely be extremely hard, but I’m certainly going to give those a shot."

"Those are very lofty goals," added track and field head coach Martin Binette, "but Mike is like no other sprinter I've had in my eight years here. If anyone can do it, Mike can."

He is off to a good start to another goal, that of going undefeated in the Cape Ann League, winning the 100 (11.5 seconds) and 200 (23.7) in the Tigers’ first tri-meet against Amesbury and Pentucket. That outing resulted in a pair of losses for the Tigers. Tigers head coach Martin Binette hopes that continued event wins by D’Agostino and continued development by the team’s younger runners will see meet victories soon enough.

"Mike is an incredibly gifted athlete and he sets really high goals for himself," added D’Agostino. "Mike wants to get to the All-States in either the 100 or 200 meters, and I think he has a really good chance. His training is going well and he's like a machine, always putting forth a good effort in practice. He's a pleasure to coach."

Almost every time a coach refers to a player like that, it means they are disciplined and very much self-motivated to get the most they can out of themselves.

"[The first meet times] were not where I was last spring. They weren’t totally official times, so it’s not concerning, but it raises my eyebrows and makes me train harder," said D’Agostino. "I definitely want to be better."

D’Agostino knew as a freshman he wanted to indoor track and field, but it was meant as prep for lacrosse.

"I enjoyed doing track so much, I just picked it up [for the spring] there. I thought ‘this is pretty good for me, so I’ll stick with it,’" said D’Agostino.

He remembered watching his brother Dan D’Agostino at track and field meets.

"My older brother ran track four or five years ago, so I got to learn about the sport. I went to see him run and it was fun to watch the meets," Mike said. "Once I started, it was my turn."

D’Agostino is all ready every day to hit the track for workouts of 50, 100 and 200 meters, as well as for his field events – the long and triple jumps.

"In indoor, we lifted a lot, but outdoors we have to work on the field events. I wish we could lift more for outdoor – I think it’s beneficial to get stronger as the season progresses," said D’Agostino. "I enjoy the field events, but I’m definitely not the best at those."

D’Agostino did finish second in the triple jump against Amesbury and Pentucket.

He is hoping to take his track and field expertise beyond high school.

"I definitely want to run in college. That is my goal. I’d like to try it at the Division 1 level," he added. "As a junior, I haven’t spoken to any coaches directly, but I’ve gotten a few letters in the mail from coaches about their programs."

Working to turn it around

The Tigers are busy preparing for their next meet, which takes place Wednesday (April 26) against Triton and Masconomet. Both the boys and girls teams will be looking for their first wins from that meet.

"We started off the season a little slow, but we did go against two of the better teams in the league," said Binette.

The boys fell by scores of 86-59 (to Amesbury) and 99-46 (to Pentucket). The girls lost to Amesbury, 82-59, and to Pentucket, 99-51.

Along with D’Agostino, the only other double-winner for Ipswich was Anthony Marini, who took the 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles, while Kellen Waters was the winner of the 800-meter run. Cam Mallette won the long jump and was the anchor leg of the winning 4x100 relay team, where he was joined by Fernando Martinez, Justin Moran and Max Duffield.

Tyler Whynott pulled in second place points in the pole vault and 400-meter run.

Jessie Harrington was a triple-winner in the 400 hurdles, 100 hurdles and the triple jump, while Abby Fitzpatrick was a winner in the shotput and claimed second in discus.

Amanda Recupero was second in the 400 and took third in the long jump, while the 4x100 relay team of Olivia Primack, Olivia St. Peter, Ava Hoog and Lauren Gallant.